Kevin Sorbo – Interview

It’s true! Kevin Sorbo was down to play Mulder in the X Files, but opted instead to shoot Hercules leaving the door open for David Duchovny. This is probably a good thing, because Fox occasionally got a bit of a beating, and if we’re honest, if we had seen Kevin losing a scuffle we’d all be strugglnig with that. He was also down to do Superman, but due to other commitments, Dean Cain stepped in. Bit of a shame, because we can easily see Kevin as Superman. Actually, we think he’d be great in Game of Thrones too hint hint. This was Hunter’s idea, although Hunter also had an “awesome idea” where various actors should take part in a charity golf game dressed as one of their roles, apparently this was so Kevin would play as Hercules, Hunter could be the caddy, and at an awkward bunker shot when asked “What do you think?” by Kevin, Hunter could then answer “I’m thinking either Exaclibur, Mournblade or Aranrúth” and pull out a whacking huge Claymore or something. I think the early morning start was too much for him.

Abbie: Over the course of your career you’ve played a wide range of characters, is that something you always strived to do, or something that just kind of happened that way?

Kevin: Well I think, Hercules wasn’t something that I was looking for, it was just something that came along and I liked the first script. By the second movie we shot, I knew that movie was gonna be a hit, I just knew it – went for seven years, would’ve gone three more, but I had reached a point where I was looking for something different at that time, and Andromeda came along about three months prior to the series ending, so I had something immediately to fall back on so to speak, and after Andromeda finished, I decided that I just wanted to mix it up. I’ve been doing a lot of small independent films, I’ve shot about, gosh, forty films at least in the last six or seven years, and it’s been a mixture of things, and I wanna do different things. I mean, I’ve got a movie coming up called “Julia X” where I play a serial killer, I’ve got a couple of comedy ones coming on, a couple of sci-fi ones, family dramas, children’s movies, I’ve been mixing it up a lot on purpose.

Abbie: For you is it more about the character, because at the moment there a lot of big blockbusters with CGI, so is it just about the characters or the storyline for you?

Kevin: Yeah I mean if I read a script, I’ll give a script 20 pages, if it doesn’t hold my interest any more I just say no to the project. Yeah I look at the character but I also look into the story, see what it’s about, I’m curious to look into, like you said different things. I’m at the point now where, this year I was planning to do another series, so we tried real hard to get that going, and I got down to the last two guys on three series’, and I lost out to all three of them. And I was perfect for them, not that the other guys weren’t, but I nailed them all in readings but it comes down to that day, had I gone on the Tuesday rather than the Thursday maybe I’d have got the part, Hollywood is very weird about how or why you get a part or why you don’t get one.

Abbey: Ok, so you’re going to start filming “Crowning Lake” soon, do you think it’s important to give back to the community where a film is being shot?

Kevin: Yeah, definitely. That film’s probably not gonna be filmed till next winter anyway, ’cause winter’s over obviously, that one probably won’t happen until February or March next year. Most of Hollywood’s movies aren’t even done in Hollywood anymore, they’re done in Canada, they’re done in Louisiana, there are a lot of states in America now that do a lot of tax credits, and they’re actually filming a series in Scotland at the moment it’s called “Viking”, and I’m actually Norwegian, and my manager is the producer, but I couldn’t do it because you’ve got to be from either Scotland, England, Ireland, Canada or New Zealand, you’ve gotta be part of the whole Commonwealth thing to even get a part in it. So I’m like wait a minute, it’s an American movie, American money, but it’s being shot over here, so the tax credits to get them, you have to book actors that are within that area. It’s frustrating for me on that level sometimes that some of these parts that I’m perfect for. But it’s just the way it is, but certainly, shooting in these other communities brings a lot of work that normally wouldn’t have been there. I shot a small movie in Michigan called “What If”, half the town were unemployed, but they employed almost half those people, to work as extras and stuff like that. It’s good; it brings extra work to places that usually wouldn’t get it.

Abbie: So is that an objective, personally for you as well, to make sure that the people get work?

Kevin: Yeah, why not? Why not have that happen if it’s gonna help people out? I mean the economy for the last 4 or 5 years has been horrible for a lot of people. I keep working, but even actors; we’re taking up to 90% pay cuts, huge pay cuts, but we want to keep working, it’s just kinda the way things are at the moment.

Abbie: So you’ve been working on “A World Fit For Kids”, how’s that going?

Kevin: It’s going great we’re growing, we’re going nation wide with it, and you can go toworldfitforkids.org to get more information on it, there’s a lot of stuff going on with it. I was just recently in Washington DC speaking with the congressman about the programme and once again showing how successful it is, and why they don’t implement it in every city, every school in America is beyond me, but then again we’re talking about American politics, which is completely screwed up.

Abbie: Well, thank you very much for the interview.

Kevin: You’re very welcome!

We’ve become huge fans of Kevin, always impressed with his friendliness, professionalism and for being just an all round great guy. Ok, we couldn’t resist the “Level 20 Kevin Sorbo Looking for group” picture, but on a more serious note, Kevin is an inspiration. Kevin has a book out :

On television, Kevin Sorbo portrayed an invincible demigod; in his real life, a sudden health crisis left him partially blind and incapacitated at just thirty-eight years old. Yet since appearances are everything in Hollywood, he hid the full details about his condition from the press and continued to film Hercules, which was the number one TV series in the world. In this inspiring memoir, Sorbo shares the story of the crisis that ultimately redefined his measure of success.

One of the reviewers had this to say about him:

When you finish this book, you will have an entirely different perspective on Kevin Sorbo, and maybe even about yourself.

We haven’t read the book, but this is exactly how we felt after we met him for the first time a few years back. Even though he’s tired, even though he’s had no sleep, you meet him at a convention, and he has a heart warming smile for everybody.